The
convenient
highway for Danish and Norman pirates.
William Wordsworth
[B]
Even so doth God protect us if we be
Virtuous and wise. Winds blow, and waters roll, 10
Strength to the brave, and Power, and Deity;
Yet in themselves are nothing! One decree
Spake laws to _them_, and said that by the soul
Only, the Nations shall be great and free.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: From 1807 to 1843 the title was 'September, 1802'; "near
Dover" appeared in the "Sonnets" of 1838, but did not become a permanent
part of the title until 1845. --Ed. ]
[Footnote B: Compare in S. T. 'Coleridge's Ode to the Departing Year',
stanza vii. :
'And Ocean 'mid his uproar wild
Speaks safety to his island-child. '
Ed. ]
In 'The Friend' (ed. 1818, vol. i. p. 107), Coleridge writes:
"The narrow seas that form our boundaries, what were they in times of
old?
The convenient highway for Danish and Norman pirates. What are
they now? Still, but a 'Span of Waters. ' Yet they roll at the base of
the Ararat, on which the Ark of the Hope of Europe and of Civilization
rested! "
He then quotes this sonnet from the line "Even so doth God protect us if
we be. "
The note appended to the sonnet, 'Composed in the Valley near Dover, on
the day of Landing' (p. 341), shows that this one refers to the same
occasion; and that while "Inland, within a hollow vale," Wordsworth was,
at the same time, on the Dover Cliffs; the "vale" being one of the
hollow clefts in the headland, which front the Dover coast-line. The
sonnet may, however, have been finished afterwards in London. --Ed.
* * * * *
WRITTEN IN LONDON, SEPTEMBER, 1802
Composed September, 1802. --Published 1807
[This was written immediately after my return from France to London,
when I could not but be struck, as here described, with the vanity and
parade of our own country, especially in great towns and cities, as
contrasted with the quiet, and I may say the desolation, that the
Revolution had produced in France. This must be borne in mind, or else
the reader may think that in this and the succeeding Sonnets I have
exaggerated the mischief engendered and fostered among us by undisturbed
wealth. It would not be easy to conceive with what a depth of feeling I
entered into the struggle carried on by the Spaniards for their
deliverance from the usurped power of the French. Many times have I gone
from Allan Bank in Grasmere Vale, where we were then residing, to the
top of Raise-gap, as it is called, so late as two o'clock in the
morning, to meet the carrier bringing the newspapers from Keswick.
Imperfect traces of the state of mind in which I then was may be found
in my tract on the Convention of Cintra, as well as in these
Sonnets. --I.
Even so doth God protect us if we be
Virtuous and wise. Winds blow, and waters roll, 10
Strength to the brave, and Power, and Deity;
Yet in themselves are nothing! One decree
Spake laws to _them_, and said that by the soul
Only, the Nations shall be great and free.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: From 1807 to 1843 the title was 'September, 1802'; "near
Dover" appeared in the "Sonnets" of 1838, but did not become a permanent
part of the title until 1845. --Ed. ]
[Footnote B: Compare in S. T. 'Coleridge's Ode to the Departing Year',
stanza vii. :
'And Ocean 'mid his uproar wild
Speaks safety to his island-child. '
Ed. ]
In 'The Friend' (ed. 1818, vol. i. p. 107), Coleridge writes:
"The narrow seas that form our boundaries, what were they in times of
old?
The convenient highway for Danish and Norman pirates. What are
they now? Still, but a 'Span of Waters. ' Yet they roll at the base of
the Ararat, on which the Ark of the Hope of Europe and of Civilization
rested! "
He then quotes this sonnet from the line "Even so doth God protect us if
we be. "
The note appended to the sonnet, 'Composed in the Valley near Dover, on
the day of Landing' (p. 341), shows that this one refers to the same
occasion; and that while "Inland, within a hollow vale," Wordsworth was,
at the same time, on the Dover Cliffs; the "vale" being one of the
hollow clefts in the headland, which front the Dover coast-line. The
sonnet may, however, have been finished afterwards in London. --Ed.
* * * * *
WRITTEN IN LONDON, SEPTEMBER, 1802
Composed September, 1802. --Published 1807
[This was written immediately after my return from France to London,
when I could not but be struck, as here described, with the vanity and
parade of our own country, especially in great towns and cities, as
contrasted with the quiet, and I may say the desolation, that the
Revolution had produced in France. This must be borne in mind, or else
the reader may think that in this and the succeeding Sonnets I have
exaggerated the mischief engendered and fostered among us by undisturbed
wealth. It would not be easy to conceive with what a depth of feeling I
entered into the struggle carried on by the Spaniards for their
deliverance from the usurped power of the French. Many times have I gone
from Allan Bank in Grasmere Vale, where we were then residing, to the
top of Raise-gap, as it is called, so late as two o'clock in the
morning, to meet the carrier bringing the newspapers from Keswick.
Imperfect traces of the state of mind in which I then was may be found
in my tract on the Convention of Cintra, as well as in these
Sonnets. --I.
